Castle, What's That on Your Thigh?
by KrisWritesWrongs
Summary: In the course of investigating a crime, Kate Beckett meets Castle's body art.


Detective Kate Beckett stood at the edge of a group of trees in Central Park and looked around her. According to the captain's directions, there should be a crime scene right here, but she didn't see one other human being, much less a busy crime scene investigation. Traffic sounds and the faint smell of hotdogs told her she wasn't far from civilization but curiously enough no one walked the paths or lounged on the grass. It was sunny and t-shirt warm, but not sweaty hot: a good day for lounging. She sighed and pulled at the throat of her turtleneck. What possessed her to wear something so warm? And where was the crime scene? Is it possible she misheard the directions? Her head felt fuzzy and she wanted nothing more than to lie down in the grass and nap. Kate rubbed her forehead and pulled out her phone to call Esposito for better directions. She was annoyed by the thought that once again she, lead detective, would be the last on the scene while Castle was probably already there spouting theories that involved either a CIA conspiracy or a butler in the drawing room with a candlestick. Her phone was dead. She pushed all the buttons, slid her finger around on the screen, rebooted, but nothing.

"Great," she mumbled to herself. "Could this day get any better?" As she glared at her phone, deciding on her next move, she heard the soft clop-clop of a horse's hooves on grass.

"What the... ." She turned around just in time to see a black horse with a flowing mane step lightly from the trees and stop in front of her. He was a beautiful horse and normally Kate would have stroked his nose and whispered into his ears, but she was distracted by the man on the horse.

"Castle?" she asked. "Why are you riding a horse?" Castle sat high on the horse's back, balancing himself perfectly without use of saddle or bridle. His brown hair gleamed in the sun as he grinned down at her.

"Beckett. Fancy seeing you here. Would you like to ride?" He stroked the horse's neck, the sun highlighting the movement of his muscled arms and chest. The fuzziness in her head grew and a bead of sweat slid down between her breasts. Was it getting hotter? Was that why Castle was—

"Castle!" She clapped both hands over her eyes. "Dear god. You're naked. Why are you naked?" She moved her pinky finger just slightly…yup, he was naked. Lots of Castle flesh on display. Lots of delicious, smooth, slightly sweaty Castle flesh. She should demand he get down from the horse and put his clothes on, but she wasn't sure what would be worse for her self-control: Castle naked on a horse or Castle naked standing right in front of her. She didn't see his clothes anywhere and she certainly couldn't give him hers…another image, this one of both of them half-dressed (or half-naked), popped into her head and she moaned and held her hands more firmly against her eyes.

"It's spring," Castle said. "Am I that horrible to look at?" Kate, confused by the seeming non sequitur of his answer and upset that she had hurt his feelings, forgot his nakedness for a moment and dropped her hands. "Spring? No, you're not horrible. You're the exact opposite of horrible. You're…" she gazed up at him, her "Detective Kate Beckett" rule-following hard-ass persona losing the battle to Kate, "I'm secretly-in-love-and/or-lust-with-sexy-Richard Castle."

"Wow." She took a step closer, her eyes focused on his…hip.

"See anything you like?" Castle asked, his eyebrow cocked. "I live to make you happy."

She was definitely getting hotter and yanked at her shirt again. Air. She needed air. Or cold water. Although by this time an ocean of cold water wasn't going to help her. Kate cleared her throat. "Um, is that a tattoo?"

Castle looked at the horse. "Firefly here? No, he doesn't like tattoos." Now Kate stood so close to him that her nose was inches away from his bare thigh. She could see the fine sheen of perspiration on his tattoo and swallowed hard, chanting to herself: "I will _not_ lick his thigh…I will _not_ lick his thigh…" and poked him instead.

"No, this," she said, reaching up and prodding his ink-decorated thigh. Castle looked down. "Oh, that. My tattoo." He smiled at her. "I'll get down if you want to get a closer look at it. It's a very intricate tattoo and you should see it…close up."

Kate, her hand still on his thigh, nodded. "Yes, I need to see all the…details."

"I'll just get down and then you can—"

"No!" Kate freaked. What was she doing? Castle was naked. Naked on a horse. In Central Park. And her hand was still touching his thigh. No, wait, now she's reaching for further, standing on tiptop...oh, god. Why can't she control her hands? She has to stop. "Castle, wait, this is wrong."

"Wrong?" Castle's intense blue eyes smoldered down on her. More heat, she thought. I'm burning up. "There's nothing wrong with what you're doing," Castle said. "Although if you don't stop soon you'll have to arrest yourself."

Kate stopped. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's come over me. We shouldn't be doing this."

"We shouldn't?"

"No! We're in the middle of Central Park. We need…"

"I know. The Plaza." Castle leaned over, hand extended. "Hop on." He pulled her up with one heft of his manly muscles and settled her in front of him. "Hi ho, Firefly. To the Plaza!" As they galloped away, Kate said to Castle, "Um, Castle, I feel like I'm sitting on the stick shift. Could you please move it a little to the left?"

* * *

><p>There was a definite buzzing in her ears. Kate reached out to kill the giant mosquito but instead knocked the phone on the floor.<p>

"Hey now. That's no way to treat an innocent piece of office equipment," a voice said. A voice that sounded like—

"Castle?" Kate jerked her head off of her desk and stared around her. She was in the precinct. Castle sat in the chair next to her desk. He took a huge bite out of a delicious looking cup cake swirled with Nutella icing. "Hwave uh nif nawp?"

"What?"Just seconds ago she was riding a horse with a naked, tattooed Castle. Now he was sitting in front of her cramming a cup cake into his mouth, fully clothed. Still sexy, even with his mouth full.

"I said, 'Did you have a nice nap?' You were muttering something about the Plaza and sitting on the stick shift."

"Um, did I say anything else?" Kate silently cursed her habit of talking in her sleep.

"Yeah, you did." Castle leaned towards her. He had a smudge of icing on his upper lip. Kate imagined herself licking it off, blushed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. She was obviously not right in the head today.

"Kate." She looked at him. His blue eyes were laughing at her. "Anytime you want to see my tattoo, you let me know."


End file.
